I've read that the duration of the current SpaceX demo mission to the ISS and back is highly variable. It was originally estimated they could be on-board the ISS from 1 to 4 months, and currently they're assuming a return in late July or early August.
One explanation given is that they're monitoring the degradation of the solar array, but this seems more of a we'll-stay-as-long-as-possible-unless-the-Dragon-fails-sooner-than-expected sort of a plan, rather than a more solid plan of how long to go up and stay.
It all seems very casual. If I were planning a road trip to the next state over, the difference in planning for 1 month vs. 4 months would be very different, and I don't even have to bring my own food and life support. The mission planning seems confusing. Some specific questions:
- Was this mission really so broadly planned, or were there more specific but perhaps not guaranteed plans?
- Do other missions to the ISS have this much variability in their planning?
- I assume the astronauts are busy on the ISS. How can they effectively plan the workload with such a variability in the schedule and personnel? If they go home early, does someone's experiment simply not get done?
